Comments

dyingov

ragnar, You missed the memo...."In one controversial disclosure in April, the ACLU showed documents in which the IRS general counsel said the agency could look at emails without warrants, but the IRS has said it will not use this power."

In Califonia the feds are helping people pay for new roofs. In the Midwest the feds are paying for tornado shelters. In New York the peeps will be getting new homes to live on the coast....

Ragnar

If the government starts using data mining to intrude into transactions, online stores & customers will actually complete their transactions through email, with no money actually being exchanged at the storefront.

Since it is not the government's business who I email and what we talk about, good luck collecting the tax.

It is IMPOSSIBLE for the government to grab tax revenue from those who do business over the phone or through simple gmail transactions.

Hefner

If the seller request that sales taxes be aid, I pay the sales tax, albeit reluctantly, as I doubt the seller sends the taxes to my home state. It isn’t a matter of cheating, and I resent the inference. Buying online should not be subject to sales taxes. Can you imagine the bureaucracy that will blossom if this becomes law.

Triton

I suppose it has something do with your view of taxation. We tax businesses in WV because they receive services from the state government. They use the road systems, the water, the police for protectin, the employment services, and on and on. But a company in Oregon making sunglasses selling to you pays for what? We are taxing them because they are NOT using any services and we want to tap into their income. Lets start searching cars at the stateline for things purchased elsewhere. And gas? People who buy gas in OH are not paying WV tax used for roads? People buy gas in OH because the state gas tax there is less than ours. Gotta find a way to get that tax too. You simply have to accept that idea that taxes need not be for anything other than government power to tax. WV need not promote a business climate, we can just tax businesses in other states for selling to citizen inmates in WV

dyingov

"The IRS's next phase in high-tech tax collection will be to create a "real-time" check of tax returns to "match them to third party information," said U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George in testimony before Congress. Starting this year, the IRS tools will be able to track all credit card transactions, for starters. The agency has also instructed agents on using online sources such as social media and e-commerce sites including eBay, as well as the rich data generated by mobile devices. In one controversial disclosure in April, the ACLU showed documents in which the IRS general counsel said the agency could look at emails without warrants, but the IRS has said it will not use this power."

dyingov

"That amount is expected to rise in the tax year ahead as the IRS extends the use of data mining to include the personal data of millions more taxpayers. Its sophisticated data-matching and pattern-recognition technology, largely developed by IBM over the past decade, will reach up the income ladder to include more middle-income and small-business filers who itemize deductions, although it is unlikely to have any impact on the complicated filings of high-net-worth taxpayers in the top 5 percent of income earnings, say tax experts who have studied the IRS plans."